The Dead Soul Communion is a brand new project from Ex Devilment founder Daniel Finch. The band also features members of Steve Harris British Lion and ex Dearly Beheaded drummer Simon Dawson, along with members of Synaptik, Heathen Deity and more, so there is a lot of experience and influences running through the band. The album lyrically deals with many themes such as internal struggles, love, relationships, suicide, self-destruction, acts of violence, war and mental illness.

Opening song ‘My Beautiful Mistake’ gets things off to a powerful melodic start with fierce outbursts and chug heavy guitars. This is a hefty, varied and unpredictable track especially towards the end, leaving us eager to hear more…

‘The Communion’ is much darker with aggressive growls and stomping fast instruments. It still maintains its melodic currents aided through the use of the clean vocals. The synths add more depth and ambience and work well with the thrash riffs, giving it a dramatic and suspenseful sound.

Continuing on the theatrical atmosphere is the intro of ‘Last Grains Of Sand’ which goes on to hit hard in this non-stop thumping metal offering which is all consuming through the effects and vocal wails.

Shooting Guns is known (and oft-nominated) for their film soundtrack work, but Flavour Country is more like a collection of anthems for your jettison from this universe into the multiverse.

While they’re known for heavy and saturated sounds befitting crazed horror-comedy flicks like Netflix hit WolfCop, Flavour Country features some of the band’s fastest, heaviest and most visceral material to date. Yet, it also features some of the band’s most atmospheric sounds as well.

At times there are slight hints of Ennio Morricone‘s Spaghetti Western twang amidst the looping Meddle-era Pink Floyd heavy psych and driving drone reminiscent of Bobby Beausoleil‘s belladonna laced soundtrack to Kenneth Anger‘s Lucifer Rising. But for the most part here, Shooting Guns is out for blood, regardless of tempo.

Album opener “Ride Free” kicks off with a blistering wall of guitars blaring and rattling out of the gate like mutant progeny to fellow Canadian biker-rock heroes Steppenwolf having duly fired all of the guns, exploded into space and returned to hunt down every last one of us. It accelerates from there: “French Safe” sounds like an unhinged battalion of musicians driving full throttle like a scene from a George MillerRoad Warrior movie. Biting, lengthier tracks like “Simian Shelf” and the title track occupy the heavy end of the psychedelic spectrum, haunting the foggy moor between early, bluesy Sabbath-styled doom riffery and heavy pulse-riding kraut-rock.

Former Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss and Dwarves member Nick Oliveri announces the forthcoming collaborative album ‘N.O. Hits At All, Vol. 3′ via Heavy Psych Sounds label. Oliveri is joined by several members of his former bands, as well as Melissa Auf Der Mar (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins), Wino (Saint Vitus) and more. See track list below.

“This record is volume 3 of a series of compilations in which I recorded the vocals,” Oliveri says.”Bands that I like and bands that like my singing voice enough to have asked me to ‘guest vocal’ on a song for their records. Some of these have been released and some have not, until now. I have sung and/or recorded bass on 50+ releases of bands I love and had the great honor to work with — DWARVES * MONDO GENERATOR * SVETLANAS * Q.O.T.S.A. * KYUSS * BL’AST * BLOODCLOT * MASTERS OF REALITY * VISTA CHINO * MARK LANEGAN BAND * TURBONEGRO * DEATH ACOUSTIC * THE UNCONTROLLABLE — to name a few.

“The good folks at Heavy Psych Sounds Records are releasing the series called N.O. Hits At All. Now for the first time, all these songs and bands I’ve recorded with over the past 25 years are together and available to you to trip out on. So get your head right and put this record on and play it loud. Stay tuned for Volume Four (coming soon).”

Macclesfield rockers The Virginmarys have announced their new EP ‘Sitting Ducks’ will be released 22nd September 2017.

A collection of four new songs including ‘Sweet Loretta’ (previous Classic Rock Magazine ‘Tracks Of the Week’ winner + Team Rock featured ‘Singles Club’), this self-produced release carries the mantra of ‘Peace, Love, Truth, Music’. ‘Sitting Ducks’ is a cutting and sincere EP that speaks directly to what it is to live, love, and lose.

Available now to pre-order through the band’s website and Pledge Music, The Virginmarys chose to self-release in order to connect directly to their fans. Frontman Ally Dickaty comments “We’ve always been hard to pigeon hole and we thank our fans time and again for letting us be ourselves so we can grow together. We have an army of incredibly dedicated fans and our lives shows have become all the more special for it. In these unpredictable times, we want to be part of the answer and put something true into the world.”

Gentle Giant have released their first taster from their new Prog compilation album ‘Three Piece Suite’ remixed by Steven Wilson, out September 29th, the fabulous ‘Peel The Paint’.

You can check out the video below:

Gentle Giant—Three Piece Suite is a specially curated selection of songs and compositions from the band’s first three albums (Giant, Acquiring The Taste, Three Friends) presented in both 5.1 surround sound and stereo. There are nine tracks from the albums, plus a pre-debut song, remixed by Steven Wilson. The choices were determined by the limited availability of multi-track master tapes from the era. Only a few songs from each album are known to exist as multi-tracks, with the rest presumably lost.

NUMB release their self-titled debut album on 1st September via Attic Records.

This fierce, hard driving rocker throws up fabulous tunes track after track, showcasing twists, grooves and surprises galore and the end result is a truly stunning album, made even more so by the fact this is their debut offering. An extremely exciting future awaits this formidable quartet.

Established in 2015, a rekindled long term musical collaboration between guitarist songwriter Darren Caven-Quantrill and multi-instrumentalist composer Barney Byron (The Calling, Audioeinstein) joined forces with unknown but talented lyricist and vocalist Lee Rayner.

An album’s worth of original material was rapidly composed with the fresh writing partnership says Rayner, “Darren and me just clicked and we immediately knew we had a unique sound, some might hear the Randy Rhoads/Osbourne esque guitars? Some may hear our combined appreciation of bands like System of a Down? Others possibly the punk edge of the Dead Kennedys? The angst of Rage against the Machine? or even the neo classical Muse edge?”